by Cassandra
The thought of Debbie, Patricia, and Marie brought another concern to mind. They had spied on her date—or outing, rather—with Kacey.
Jessica looked around. Once again, he was absent. He was either sick or he had skipped this particular class to avoid her.
“Hey, Jess.”
For only a second, she believed the male voice that greeted her was Kacey. Instead, it was Eric who smiled at her.
“Hi, Eric.” She instantly regretted the disappointment clearly audible in her voice. His expression faltered. He took a seat silently on the other side of Ashley’s chair.
“Kacey’s missing again. What’s up with that?” Sara whispered as if she sensed that Kacey was on Jessica’s mind.
She blinked. Sara, Ashley, and Eric all stared at her and she shrugged, a little uncomfortable. “I don’t know.”
“Have you not talked to him since your date?”
Jessica gritted her teeth. “I really wish you would stop calling it that.”
“Whatever. Answer the question. You really haven’t talked to him since then?”
She swallowed and shook her head. What if something serious was going on? Was she wrong for not checking in on him? Things had ended on a weird note after their outing. What were the chances that he waited for her to make the first move and call him? Maybe he thought her weird behavior was her way of saying she wasn’t interested in him and he subsequently felt the need to keep his distance from her.
She still wanted to be friends. Didn’t he know that?
How could he know that if you haven’t reached out to him? a voice in her head asked.
“See, this is what we mean about you being so secretive. You still haven’t told us what happened between you two.” Ashley was clearly agitated.
“There’s nothing to tell. The date ended a little abruptly, that’s all. My grandma called me home unexpectedly. Maybe he took it the wrong way.”
Ashley grinned. “So you finally admit it was a date?”
Jessica rolled her eyes. The more she thought about it, the more concerned for Kacey she became. She glanced toward the front of the classroom. The teacher hadn’t arrived yet. Quickly, she retrieved her phone and began to write a text message for Kacey. She stopped and for a moment, she simply stared at the screen, unsure of what to write.
When she looked up again, their teacher was making her way down the hall.
Swearing silently, she lowered her phone and hid it under her desk. Her fingers flew rapidly across the keyboard as she entered the first words that came to mind. Hi. Hope u r okay.
She pressed send and immediately felt stupid. Surely there was something more she could have said. Well, it was too late now. The short message would have to do.
Jessica still hadn’t received a reply from Kacey when school let out. While she was definitely bothered by this, she had no time to dwell on it. She needed to get to the church to meet Pastor Norman and she needed to do it without getting tangled up with her friends. They would undoubtedly have more questions than she had answers.
She packed her backpack in record speed, threw her coat on, and bolted for the door. Once outside, she raced across the parking lot and hopped into her old, cold Jeep. She automatically pulled her extra hat and gloves from the glove compartment. For some reason, she felt colder than normal but decided it was due to where she was going and what she was about to witness, not because of any real chill in the air. As she pulled out of the parking lot, Kacey’s whereabouts felt like an inconsequential matter. How could she be worried about a boy at a time like this?
Thoughts of The Exorcist returned unbidden to her mind. Jessica fumbled with the radio and tried to find something loud and fast to distract her. She liked to think she didn’t scare easily, but horror films that dealt with possession and exorcism had always freaked her out. It most likely had something to do with seeing The Exorcist at far too young an age. She had been at a friend’s house and her friend’s older siblings had watched scary movies. The two younger girls had snuck into the living room while they were supposed to be asleep and wound up watching scary movies all night. Needless to say, they never did get to sleep that night. In fact, both of them hardly slept a wink for over a week.
You are nearly an adult now, and you have faced demons before. This will be nothing, Jessica told herself.
If only she could actually believe it.
The drive to the church seemed to pass much quicker than normal. Jessica parked, shut the Jeep off, and stared out the window for several seconds. An older couple headed into the church and both looked familiar. She was sure they regularly attended Sunday services. Never in a million years would she have guessed they were demon hunters.
“Well. Here goes,” Jessica said out loud to nobody in particular. She pulled off her extra hat and gloves, exited the Jeep, and walked resolutely up the church stairs. This was what she had signed up for, and there was no going back. She steeled herself and pushed through the doors.
“Jessica.” Pastor Norman called her to a small group that chatted in the pews. He beamed at her. “I’m glad you made it.”
She nodded. “I told you I would. And I know better than to lie to a pastor.”
The others chuckled. She glanced around and quickly assessed the others present. Aside from the older couple, a guy who looked like he was around Chad’s age and two women who regularly served as ushers during Sunday services made up the group.
“Everyone, this is Jessica,” Pastor Norman introduced her. “You probably recognize her. She and her family have been long-time members of the church and she’ll accompany us today. She’s in training. Jessica, this is everybody.”
“Hi,” she croaked nervously.
“You’re Ethel Libbons’s granddaughter, right?”
“The one and only. That’s not important right now, though.” The pastor put the question down easily and spared her the awkwardness of answering. While it was flattering to see how much people respected her grandmother, it had become more than a little disconcerting. She could feel the expectations placed on her because of her family. It was daunting for a new witch, to say the least.
She cast an appreciative glance at Pastor Norman.
He nodded slightly to her to reveal his understanding. “All right. Let’s get a move on. I don’t expect this exorcism to take all day.” He hoisted a big duffle bag over his shoulder and led them all out to one of the church vans.
During the drive to the possessed woman’s house, Jessica listened as the others discussed their plan for how they would proceed. As riveted as she was by the conversation, her mind still drifted off occasionally. Her imagination constantly conjured images of the kind of horror they were about to encounter. It took her a moment to realize that the van had stopped moving.
“Come on, Jessica.” One of the women held the door open for her.
She snapped out of her reverie and climbed out of the van.
“Is everyone ready?” Pastor Norman asked.
“Yes,” everyone but Jessica answered.
Without further ado, they followed him to the house in question. It was located at the end of the block and looked like any other home at first glance. As they drew nearer, Jessica felt an intense chill that she already knew had nothing to do with the weather. She sensed, rather than saw, the dark shadow that covered the home.
Pastor Norman walked up to the front porch and rang the doorbell. Moments later, the door swung open and a young woman greeted him. “Pastor Norman, thank you so much for coming.” Her face was pale and lined with worry, her hair was wild, and judging from the dark circles under her eyes, she hadn’t slept in days. Maybe weeks.
“Hello, Lydia.” He stepped inside the house, took the woman’s hand, and squeezed it reassuringly. “How is she?”
Lydia shook her head. “Not good, Pastor.”
“Well, don’t worry. That’s why we’re here.” He set down his duffle bag and rummaged through it to remove the tools of this particular trade. These in
cluded bottles of holy water, crosses, rosaries, a jar of salt, a piece of chalk, ropes, and a Bible.
He turned to his group of demon fighters. “Listen carefully. Demons of this kind will try to put up a fight, but it’s only because they’re afraid. They hate being confronted, so simply seeing all of us will make it angry. There is strength in numbers.”
The group nodded and he looked directly at Jessica. “For those of you who are new to this, I urge you not to look it directly in the eyes for any significant length of time. It will try to make eye contact with you. If it looks at you for longer than ten seconds, hold up your cross.” He passed out hand-held crosses to each of them. “I’ll secure it to the bed, but if at any point it springs free and appears to move toward you?” He held up a bottle of holy water. “Splash it with this but try to use as little as possible. We’ll need it for the end.” He handed each of them a bottle.
Jessica’s tongue felt like sandpaper. She held the cross in one hand and the bottle of holy water in the other. Hold up the cross if it looks at you. Splash the water if it comes toward you, she recited in her head.
“I’ll read Bible verses to drive the demon out,” Pastor Norman continued. “If any of you recognize the scripture I read, feel free to recite it along with me. As for the rest, you know what to do.” He paused and glanced around. “Any questions?”
Her heart raced. She had questions—millions of them. While the others might have known what to do, she surely didn’t. Her mind had gone numb. She glanced at those who surrounded her. All of them looked resolute and far more confident than she felt.
From some distance away, Lydia watched them. She bit her bottom lip nervously. Somehow, her complexion seemed even paler than before.
“All right. Let’s begin.” Pastor Norman stood before each one of them in turn, placed his hand on their foreheads, and quickly murmured a prayer. When it was done, he turned to Lydia. “Please, lead the way.”
She guided them to the back of the house. As she walked with the others, Jessica’s legs felt like lead. Perhaps sensing her nervousness, the older woman squeezed her shoulder gently. “Just remember the instructions Pastor Norman gave us, and you’ll be fine,” she whispered.
Jessica tried to feel reassured at her words but didn’t quite manage it.
Lydia stopped before a closed door at the end of a hall. She looked over her shoulder at the group, her eyes wide and fearful. Then, she opened the door slowly and stepped aside.
“You don’t have to come inside. We’ll take it from here,” Pastor Norman whispered to her.
She nodded. Jessica had never seen a woman look more grateful than Lydia looked at that moment.
The pastor entered and the others followed. Jessica and the older woman who’d attempted to comfort her brought up the rear. It felt like they had stepped into a freezer. When Jessica exhaled a breath, it fogged the air and she shuddered. She hardly had time to look around before a horrific screech pierced her ears. Her heart leapt into her throat. She tightened her fists around the hand-held cross and the bottle of holy water she’d been armed with.
In a flash, the older couple rushed to assist Pastor Norman. He stood beside a bed where a middle-aged woman had jumped abruptly to her feet. She hissed malevolently at them.
There were no whites in her eyes. Instead, they were entirely black. Her dark hair was matted and tangled, and her skin had taken on a greenish pallor. She wore a dingy nightgown that was ripped and stained. Her face was covered in scabs and scratches.
She suddenly leapt toward Pastor Norman. The noise that issued from her mouth sounded like she was host to a whole chorus of monsters.
The older couple reacted with a speed that shocked Jessica. They seized the woman, one by each arm, and forced her back to the bed. Pastor Norman threw ropes to them. They caught them and tied the woman’s hands quickly to the bedrails. The young man ran forward and grabbed the woman’s feet. He held them fast so Pastor Norman could tie them together and render the woman as motionless as possible.
The other two women fell into their own roles. One grabbed the salt and the other the chalk. They made a circle around the bed with these and chanted something as they moved. Prayers, perhaps, in a language Jessica did not know. Latin? It was the only thing she could think of, and she knew some churches still used the language although theirs didn’t usually, at least not in any service she’d attended.
The possessed woman growled and spat, then shouted at them in another language Jessica had never heard before.
She felt chilled to the bone. Suddenly overwhelmed, she swallowed and closed her eyes for a moment as she forced herself to take deep breaths. The very act of breathing hurt her lungs due to the severe cold that permeated the room.
Once the woman was tied to the bed, Pastor Norman retrieved his Bible. He flipped through the thin pages quickly to find his spot. He held his cross firmly over the woman and spoke a quiet prayer. Her body convulsed in response and she roared once again.
The pastor began to read from the Bible, although Jessica could hardly hear what he said because of the possessed woman’s screams. The older couple seemed familiar with the passage and began to recite it along with him.
She almost jumped out of her own skin when something brushed against her hand. Startled, she looked sideways and saw that it was merely one of the women—one of the ushers from the church. She held her cross up in the possessed woman’s direction and gestured for Jessica to do the same.
It was then that she realized that the possessed woman looked directly at her.
Oh crap, she thought and held her cross up with shaking hands.
“If you know any prayers, say them,” the woman beside her whispered.
Jessica’s mind drew a blank. She had been a regular churchgoer all her life, but prayers she had been able to recite since kindergarten seemed to have escaped her. She went with the best prayer she could muster under the circumstances: God, don’t let this thing kill us all.
She mouthed the words as the woman’s body began to levitate from the bed. Thankfully, her hands and feet remained tied, which prevented her from escaping the bed entirely.
Pastor Norman and the old couple intoned the Bible passages more fiercely, although Jessica couldn’t help wondering if it was really working. From what she could see, their raised voices only seemed to agitate the demon further.
Somehow, she didn’t think that was a good thing.
The others moved closer to the bed and held their crosses toward the woman as she continued to twist and turn and shout angrily.
The pastor closed the Bible and set it on the dresser behind him. He fixed a stern glare on the woman in the bed. “Rose, please come forward and reclaim your rightful place. Demon, I command you to leave this woman at once,” he bellowed.
The others chanted, “Leave this woman. Leave this woman. Leave this woman.”
Jessica watched, thoroughly frightened and confused. She wasn’t even sure whether or not she should join in.
The demon inside the woman screeched even louder than before. Her mouth opened so wide it looked like her jaw would unhinge.
Pastor Norman looked up and nodded at the young man beside him.
He nodded back and held up the cross. “Leave this woman,” he commanded and doused her with his holy water.
The demon roared.
The older couple then repeated the little ritual. Then the two women. Finally, they turned to Jessica. Startled, she looked at Pastor Norman. He nodded encouragingly.
She tightened her grip on the cross, but her hands shook visibly. Her knuckles ached and did nothing to ease the trembling. She held the cross up toward the woman anyway. Shaking from both cold and fear, she recited as the others had. “Leave this woman.”
Suddenly, a wave of calm came over her. The deep coldness around her thawed. With her other hand, she took her bottle of holy water and tossed it at the woman. She felt a warm burst of something inside her. Magic? Whatever it was, it guided her h
and as she took her turn to douse the victim with holy water.
The demon in the woman roared with inhuman rage. The sound pierced Jessica’s ears and all the nearby windows actually cracked.
She felt all eyes on her, but she was far more distracted by the woman and the way her body had suddenly collapsed onto the bed, motionless.
Pastor Norman gestured for the others to move back. He took his own bottle of holy water. “Thy will be done,” he whispered and poured the holy water directly into the woman’s open mouth.
For a moment, Jessica thought the woman would choke. She sputtered, gasped, and exhaled a huge breath. A black fog rose from her mouth, then disappeared.
The pastor nodded at his team. The others began to help him untie the woman.
“Is it over?” Jessica asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
He nodded again before he touched the woman’s face gently. “Rose? Rose, wake up now. You’re back. You’re free.”
The woman’s eyes fluttered open slowly. The deep black was gone from the whites of her eyes, and her natural brown irises had returned. Color seeped into her face. The scratches remained, but the pallor had faded from her cheeks. She sat up in the bed. “Pastor?” She looked at Pastor Norman, then at the others. She was completely confused. “What’s going on?”
One of the women chuckled and soon, the entire team was convulsed in laughter.
The young man nudged Jessica’s shoulder. “Pretty cool, huh? You survived your first exorcism.”
“She kicked ass during her first exorcism too,” one of the women blurted. She covered her mouth. “Sorry, Pastor.”
“No apologies needed. I happen to share the sentiment. Well done, Jessica.”
Her laugh became loudest of all, and she knew she was partially hysterical.
“Mom?” Lydia entered the room. When she saw the woman on the bed, tears of relief fell without inhibition. She rushed to her mother’s bedside and threw her arms around her.
Jessica didn’t want to ruin the moment, but she also knew that her bladder couldn’t take much more after such a stressful ordeal. “I’m sorry, but where’s the bathroom?” she asked.
